Minipress News

TUESDAY, Feb. 7, 2017 – A group of family physicians warns that too many Americans struggle with high blood pressure. High blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart attack and heart failure, said Dr. John Meigs Jr., president of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). Since February is National Heart Month, now is a good time for people to get their blood pressure under control and treated so they can avoid heart disease, Meigs said. A 2016 survey by the AAFP and data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that 29 percent of Americans (75 million people) have high blood pressure, and only 54 percent have it under control. "This finding is concerning because we know that high blood pressure and heart attacks or chronic heart failure are so closely related," Meigs said in an AAFP news release. "According to the CDC, seven out of 10 people who have a ... Read more

FRIDAY, Sept. 16 – Despite ongoing prevention efforts, a growing number of young children are being accidentally poisoned with medications, according to new research. The study, which was based on data reported to the American Association of Poison Control Centers between 2001 and 2008, found that medication poisoning among children aged 5 and under increased by 22 percent, although the number of children in the United States in this age group rose by only 8 percent during the study period. "The problem of pediatric poisoning in the U.S. is getting worse, not better," Dr. Randall Bond, of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, said in a hospital news release. In conducting the study, which is scheduled for publication in the Journal of Pediatrics, the researchers reviewed information on over 544,000 children who landed in the emergency department due to medication poisoning ... Read more